Assessing The Socio-Economic Impact Of Female Recidivism On The Attainment Of Sustainable Development Goals: A Gender-Responsive Study At The Johannesburg Female Correctional Centre In South Africa
South Africa has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world, estimated to be between 50% and 90% (Schoeman, 2010; Khwela, 2014; Karrim, 2018; Cronje & Peacock, 2023). Approximately 11.5 million offenders are incarcerated in the world’s correctional facilities, 6.9% of them are women and girls. The global number of incarcerated women has increased by 53% since the year 2000 (Heard, 2017) and it is assumed that recidivism contributes to this increase. The female prison population rate of South Africa is 7.6 per 100,000 of the national female population with 4,649 of the 157,056 total offender population being women (World Prison Brief, 2023). The high rate of recidivism may be an indication that efforts to address the core reasons why women commit crime are ineffective (Adams, Klinsky, & Chhetri, 2019). The pathways that lead women to crime are largely due to layered discrimination, deprivation by their partners, families and communities, violence (Critoph, 2019), changing personal economic and social positions and the increasing feminization of poverty (Penal Reform International, 2017). The identified reasons for female criminality are directly linked to the Target Priority Areas of several Sustainable Development Goals. Failure to address these results in recidivism has the potential to negate any progress made on SDGs.